This blog is a CHALLENGE to you. If you’re reading it on a Monday, make something BIG happen by Friday . . .
I did a double take when I read this statistic on Jill Konrath’s blog, citing a piece of research from LinkedIn “Win rates multiply up to 4 times when you are connected to 4 people. “
Wow.
I’m doing my Happy Dance at seeing the quantitative research that shows how effective it is to build up a network of relationships in prospective businesses. We’ve covered the dangers of being “single-threaded” in many blog posts and given that the number of people – influencers – involved in making decisions keeps climbing, the research makes sense.
Decisions impact more departments now – IT, Marketing, Operations, HR, Production . . . nothing happens in a vacuum when you’re connected by technology and your goals are more aligned than silo’d. We can communicate and share easier now with rapid responses and immediate insights.
Your customers are talking internally, working through how a problem impacts everyone up and down the chain because . . . they CAN and they can make better decisions by having complete information.
So, why aren’t YOU talking to more people in your customers’ organizations?
“It’s tricky, I don’t want my contact to think I’m going over her head.”
I have to call BS. If their position is so tenuous that they can’t handle YOU speaking with anyone else, you’ve lost either way. Either they’re truly NOT effective at doing their job and afraid of being found out, or they’re not being transparent with you about where you stand or how their organization works.
You have completely legitimate reasons for exploring how others in their organization would use your product or how different people/departments address the challenges of changing vendors, implementing new systems, et cetera. You can often be the “Project Lead” who brings all these views to the table if they’re not already having productive internal discussions.
If YOU aren’t talking to more people in your customers’ or prospects’ organizations, your competitors are – or they’re trying to do it.
Here’s a challenge for you: This week, pick 3 to 5 existing prospects where you have built at least one relationship and try to expand that by 2 to 3 people in the organization.
- Maybe you’ve got a deal that’s stalled.
- Perhaps you’ve been “ghosted” and can’t get a response from your one contact.
- Or, maybe there’s a prospect that has consistently ignored your attempts to reach them.
Find someone else to talk to.
Who else could –
- Be impacted by a problem or your solution?
- Be involved in execution or transitions?
- Have insights into how the organization works?
- Support transition of vendors or suppliers?
Make your plan and execute!
Not only do the stats show that more relationships WINS more deals, but in many instances, those relationships can collapse the buying process and shorten the sales cycle.
Don’t wait. Do it this week!
Let us know how you did – tell us in the comments below.
Until next time, stop hoping and start SELLING!
-sks
